Moves’ own homepage and app store listings likewise do not flag its tie to the social media giant, instead listing its developer as being ProtoGeo.

However, if users had clicked on a link to the app’s privacy policy – which appears when it is first installed – and read more than halfway through the 1,276-word document, there was a single reference to Facebook.

Vitality told its members they would stop getting free cinema tickets if they did not share fitness data

“We may share information, including personally identifying information, with our affiliates (companies that are part of our corporate groups of companies, including but not limited to Facebook) to help provide, understand, and improve our services,” it states.

The campaign groups Big Brother Watch and MedConfidential both said this information needed to be better flagged.

‘Unethical’

“We want you to know we take your data protection very seriously and carefully select any companies we decide to team up with,” it said.

“With your permission we only receive activity data from carefully chosen third-party technology companies to help encourage you to get healthier – by allowing you to track your activity – and for us to reward you for it. We offer a wide range of ways to track your activity and be rewarded for it.

Vitality says it will change the way it promotes Moves in its communications

“In future, we’ll make it even clearer in our communication that Moves is owned by Facebook.”

A spokeswoman declined to provide further information about why this had not been done in advance.

MedConfidential said it still had concerns.

“Were I a Vitality customer I would not be reassured at all by such a self-serving statement that completely avoids the core issue,” said the group’s co-ordinator, Phil Booth.

“By offering the incentive in the way it has done, Vitality is basically ‘data pimping’ for Facebook – and by failing to be completely upfront about the full consequences of taking up its ‘free’ offer it has acted unethically.”

Facebook has sought to distance itself from the controversy.

It noted that Moves had not entered into an official partnership with Vitality.

The US firm added that its app was currently run “as a separate, stand-alone application to Facebook, and we have not taken steps to combine information collected through Moves with Facebook profiles”.

A Facebook spokeswoman said she had no further information to share about whether it planned to make its relationship to the app more prominent.

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